Description
The Basilica of Santa Trìnita is one of the most important churches in Florence's history, on the square of the same name, near the bridge. First of all, it is pronounced Santa Trìnita, with the stress on the first i, in the old Florentine way.
It holds a fresco that is almost a photograph of fifteenth-century Florence, Lorenzo the Magnificent included. It was painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio in the Sassetti Chapel, between 1483 and 1486.
It tells the life of Saint Francis, but sets the miracles in Piazza della Signoria and right out front, in Piazza Santa Trinita, as they looked then. Present are the patron Francesco Sassetti, who ran the Medici Bank, and Lorenzo the Magnificent with his sons and the poet Poliziano.
The first shepherd in the altarpiece is said to be the painter himself. Also not to be missed is the Bartolini Salimbeni Chapel, frescoed by Lorenzo Monaco, the only one left intact by later renovations.
The interior has three aisles with slender rectangular piers and pointed arches. The piers of the central nave diverge slightly toward the transept: an optical effect that from the entrance brings the far end closer, and from the monks' point of view made the church look bigger.
On the inner facade remains a Crucifix in the sky, all that is left of a fresco by Paolo Uccello.
In the left transept is the marble and maiolica tomb of Bishop Benozzo Federighi, a masterpiece by Luca della Robbia from 1454.
The church belonged to the Vallombrosan monks and stands where an older one stood, Santa Maria dello Spasimo, documented from 1077: traces remain on the inner facade and in the crypt. From 1250 it was enlarged in the Gothic style, among the first in Florence.
In the 1300s it was an abbey so rich in art that it housed Cimabue's Maestà, today in the Uffizi. The late sixteenth-century facade is by Buontalenti and is designed for the square more than for the church: it does not cover the two side bands, and the round window does not match the one that lights the inside.
It holds a fresco that is almost a photograph of fifteenth-century Florence, Lorenzo the Magnificent included. It was painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio in the Sassetti Chapel, between 1483 and 1486.
It tells the life of Saint Francis, but sets the miracles in Piazza della Signoria and right out front, in Piazza Santa Trinita, as they looked then. Present are the patron Francesco Sassetti, who ran the Medici Bank, and Lorenzo the Magnificent with his sons and the poet Poliziano.
The first shepherd in the altarpiece is said to be the painter himself. Also not to be missed is the Bartolini Salimbeni Chapel, frescoed by Lorenzo Monaco, the only one left intact by later renovations.
The interior has three aisles with slender rectangular piers and pointed arches. The piers of the central nave diverge slightly toward the transept: an optical effect that from the entrance brings the far end closer, and from the monks' point of view made the church look bigger.
On the inner facade remains a Crucifix in the sky, all that is left of a fresco by Paolo Uccello.
In the left transept is the marble and maiolica tomb of Bishop Benozzo Federighi, a masterpiece by Luca della Robbia from 1454.
The church belonged to the Vallombrosan monks and stands where an older one stood, Santa Maria dello Spasimo, documented from 1077: traces remain on the inner facade and in the crypt. From 1250 it was enlarged in the Gothic style, among the first in Florence.
In the 1300s it was an abbey so rich in art that it housed Cimabue's Maestà, today in the Uffizi. The late sixteenth-century facade is by Buontalenti and is designed for the square more than for the church: it does not cover the two side bands, and the round window does not match the one that lights the inside.